Strong
by Hobbitpal
Summary: He was strong, he'd get through...hopefully.
1. Chapter 1

Light

Light. That was all he could focus on, a bright white sort of light hovering in front of him. Where he was, he had no idea. How he'd gotten there, he had no idea. All he did know was that he couldn't move. It wasn't he couldn't move because he was in pain, he wasn't in any pain, it was more as though he couldn't move because his arms felt so heavy, as though someone had strapped lead weights to his limbs, keeping him pinned to the bed.

He couldn't even open his eyes properly; they felt so heavy and stiff. All he could do was stare at this faint white light, wondering what on earth it was and where on earth _he _was.

Calleigh Delko-Duquesne sat by her husband's bedside, her hand lightly resting on his, hoping to feel some movement under her fingertips that would give her some indication as to whether he would wake up.

Her face was dry of tears, she couldn't cry. Inside she knew that she should cry, but the more logical side of hr brain told her that there was no point. He wasn't dead; he wasn't alive. Unless he was one of the two she didn't really need to cry, though it would make her feel better. Her children hadn't cried, she was sure that they had no idea what was going on with their father, all they had really taken aboard was that their father was ill. She couldn't cry for them because they didn't understand what was going on and she couldn't cry for Eric because he wouldn't want that, not while he was in this state.

Slowly, almost caressingly, she placed her other hand over his, allowing their skin to lie side by side; his soft Cuban tan next to her pale sunburn. They looked so different yet they fit together like two pieces of a jigsaw, two peas in a pod, all of the old cliques fit perfectly with them. They were so different and yet so 'meant to be'.

"I thought I'd find you here." Calleigh didn't have to turn around to know that it was her friend, but she did anyway. She needed to see a familiar face.

Alexx Woods didn't smile at her as she looked up at her, she didn't seem able to bring the corners of her lips up into that encouraging smile that she would normally give her. Instead, she just nodded to her, moving further into the room, taking the vacant chair beside her.

"How's he doing?" Calleigh shrugged, turning back to Eric, her hands tightening slightly around his. Alexx didn't expect an answer, not a verbal one at any rate, a form of an answer was written across her face. Worry, fear, panic and love. Calleigh didn't know how Eric was doing any more than he did. The doctors may have told her how was doing medically, but that was just nonsense to her. Half the time she didn't know what they were saying.

"Everyone sends their best wishes." Her dumbly nodding was the only reply she got. "Have you been home yet?" Blonde hair flicked across her shoulders as she shook her head. She couldn't remember when she'd been home last, most probably just before the telephone call from the hospital or the call from Horatio, she didn't remember which one had come first. Her body ached to fall asleep in a proper bed, but it also ached to have him lying beside her, his body pressed up against hers, arms around his waist, his soft breath tickling the back of her neck when she woke up.

"You go home Calleigh. Have some food, get some sleep, see your children, tell them how much you love them and that everything is going to be alright." Normally bright eyes met Alexx's brown ones and Calleigh just nodded. Alexx had a point.

"But," Alexx shook her head, gently taking Calleigh's hands off Eric's.

"I'll stay with him honey, you go home and sleep. You'll feel better for it."


	2. Chapter 2

All three of the Delko children were awake when Calleigh got over the doorstep of the house. The eldest, Sofia, ran up to her mother wrapping her small arms around her mother's waist, holding on as if for dear life.

"Mummy!" Charles and Fredrick appeared and also wrapped their arms around her. Calleigh just held them, bending down so she could hug all three of them, feeling them pressing into her, their faces buried into her arms as she held them.

"Calleigh," The four of them looked up. Eric's mother stood in the doorway of the kitchen and it was only then that Calleigh noticed a rich thick smell on the air. If there was one good thing about marrying a Cuban, or in her case a half-Cuban, their mother's could always cook.

"Eleana," Mrs. Delko hugged her daughter in law, kissing the younger woman on each cheek in greeting. She had not seen Calleigh in months and had hoped to have seen her under better circumstances.

"How is he doing?" Calleigh glanced over her shoulder at the children. They were stood looking up the adults with big eyes, knowing that when they spoke in Spanish they were talking about something that they shouldn't know about.

"Go into the sitting room, I just have to talk to Grandma for a sec, okay?" Sofia nodded, almost slouching off to the sitting room, the two boys following. "He's doing as well as the doctor's expect. Not getting any better, not getting any worse." Eleana shook her head, hugging Calleigh to her once again. Her son had come close to dying once before, but he had been strong then, he had pulled through and he could do so again. It was not his day to die; he had much more life to enjoy, to see his children grow up and blossom, just as she had watched him grow into the man he was today.

"Do they have any more information on how it happened?"

"No, I don't even know what happened myself. They think that he was attacked at a crime scene and left for dead by who ever it was that did this to him, but Horatio doesn't know any more than we do." Eleana rolled her eyes. There was something about that man that she didn't like. She could never place her finger on it but she was sure that it had something to do with the death of her daughter. Before Marisol had met that man she'd had a good chance of living, of being free of her cancer. Instead Marisol had ended up dead, simply so some people could send a message. He should have protected her better.

"He will be fine, he is strong, you know that." She smiled as Calleigh slowly nodded, gently touching the younger woman on the shoulder, squeezing it before returning to cooking dinner. "Go see the children, they've been missing you."


	3. Chapter 3

For a few moments Calleigh just stood watching them as they played, the boys with their car mat while their sister sat on the sofa rolling her eyes occasionally as she did one of her junior Sudoko puzzles. They all looked so innocent and carefree. She couldn't spoil that for them. Alexx had always told her that the hardest thing that anyone who did what they did was to have children, to know what people out there did to each other and yet sit with their children and tell them that everything out in the wider world was fine, it was beautiful when it defiantly wasn't. Eric had said that when Sofia and Charles and Fredrick were old enough they'd tell them what the world out there was really like, but while they were children, they shouldn't have to know, they should still retain the innocence of their childhood while they could.

"What are you doing?" Fredrick looked up from his toys.

"I'm stopping Charlie from steeling from the bank!" Calleigh smiled, sitting next to her boys as they continued to play with their cars. Sofia claimed that she had grown out of playing with toy cars, but with her mother paying attention to her brothers and she wanted to join in with her family and so curled up next to her mother, watching her brothers as they made car noises and sounds of explosions that made both her and her mother smile. She wished her father was there to join in.

Beside her her mother seemed to be thinking the same thing as put an arm around her shoulders, gently pulling her closer, kissing the top of her head.

"Charlie, Fred, can you stop play for a second?" They looked up at her, falling silent at once, their cars forgotten on the mat behind them.

Calleigh looked down at the faces of her children, each of them resembling her husband in some way. Sofia's serious face, Charles' thick black hair and tanned skin and Fredrick, with his eyes that sparkled like Eric's as though he was up to no good.

"I want to tell you about the world, the world that Mummy and Daddy work in, where there are bad people, nasty people that will hurt other people, good people like your Daddy."

"That why Daddy not here?" She nodded, picking Fredrick up and placing him in her lap, holding the three of them close.

"Yes. He's at the hospital where he's being looked after by doctors and people who can make him all better. Tomorrow we'll go and see him and you can tell him how much you love him," she stopped, she couldn't ay anything else because there was really nothing else to say. All he needed to know that he was loved, that his children wanted him home again, that should give him strength to live again. Hopefully.


	4. Chapter 4

Dark brown eyes slowly opened, eyelids fluttering in the unnatural light his eyes were not used to. As his body shifted from sleep to awake his breathing became quicker, almost coughing as his eyes forced themselves open, falling on the most welcoming sight God could have given him. There before him sat an angel, with long blonde hair and sparkling green eyes and a smile that could reflect the warmth of summer and that angel was his wife, his beloved Calleigh.

"Cal," She smiled, her soft warm hands wrapping around one of his cold ones, holding it gently, stroking his skin with the very tips of her fingers, as though she was painting a picture on his palm.

"You look awful." He smiled slightly, almost grinning at the slight smile on her face. One of them had to say it, acknowledge the reason why he was in hospital, that he had been shot and did look like a mess. He was just glad she had said it because he hadn't seen how he looked.

"You've had all of us worried. You're mother didn't sleep at all last night, it took me hours to get the children to sleep," she paused, looking into his eyes, those strong brown eyes that always spoke more than his words did. His hand in hers, his strong soft grip, and his smile, that showed all his inner strength. She shouldn't have doubted him because he was strong, he wanted to be strong for her and the their family.

"I'll get them." He grinned, watching her as she left. His wife was strong, emotionally, mentally and physically and he'd never acknowledged it, always thought that it was part of her, part of who she was. They all said he was the strong one, but Calleigh was stronger than he would ever be, she held the family together like glue making sure everything ran smoothly.

"Daddy!" Small bodies ran to his bed, arms reaching up to hug him, climb up to lay their heads on his shoulders, careful not to hurt him. He couldn't imagine his smile being bigger than the one he had on his face now, his three children around him, his wife sat at the end of his bed smiling at the scene in front of her.

Hours later he lay back against his pillows, his children still in his arms, all of the asleep, Calleigh softly sleeping in the chair beside him. Looking at them, at all their calm faces he knew that he was lucky to have them because they were the ones who made him strong, made him fight and it was that thought that allowed him to sleep soundly for many nights to come.


End file.
